PUNTA GORDA — Shannon Matthews asked former Cooper Street kid and now St. Mary’s Church Pastor Demetrius Thomas to pray to close out the community listening meeting by the YMCA of Southwest Florida.
Thomas thanked Matthews, the YMCA chief operating officer, for allowing him and others to participate in the meeting at the Cooper Street Recreation Center.
Matthews said the YMCA is taking over the operations of the Cooper Street Rec Center beginning Wednesday. She said there’s “a lot of cleaning and clutter” that needs to be done before fully opening to the public. Volunteers are welcome to come help.
She said volunteers can also help mentor students. She said there’s so much more to do at the Cooper Street Rec Center.
“We’ve been told the rec center is a place where seniors gathered in the mornings and solved the world’s problems,” she said. “It’s a place where they had funerals and birthdays and repasts and many more events here.”
Matthews said the building will be a regular part of the community. Her team, including YMCA of Southwest Florida President Gene Jones, echoed the commitment while introducing themselves to a room with about 35 people Tuesday night.
The YMCA recently signed a five-year contract with the city to operate the Cooper Street Recreation Center, 650 Mary St., Punta Gorda.
It’s in a predominantly Black neighborhood where, for 60-plus years, residents always used the building. Some were concerned that it wouldn’t be open to the public anymore.
Punta Gorda City Council members Donna Peterman, Bill Dryburgh, Debi Lux and Mayor Lynne Matthews listened as some residents shared concerns about the center’s new operations.
Shannon Matthews said the building would be open for Vivian Reeves’s 90th birthday party.
“We want to have partners and our key stakeholders,” she said. “We want to bring in young people and ask what they want to see done at the rec center.”
She explained because the Y was only a tenant at the building in 2021, providing before- and after-school and summer camp services, they didn’t operate building.
She said her staff was afraid to allow something they didn’t have control over to happen there, so they sent some groups away.
Matthews said she went to her boss, Gene, and said “the babies” may be displaced if the Y didn’t go and offer the programming. She said the Y would lose money at the rec center as families couldn’t afford to pay. The Y doesn’t turn anyone away, but instead offers scholarships for the programs.
“Gene said, ‘go get our babies,’ and so we ran to get our babies,” Matthews said. “We were are no longer tenants, we want to be partners of this community.”
Matthews said the Y has to “generate some funding” so they are looking for partnerships and other agencies to collaborate and bring new services to the center. She wants to see the seniors to return to “solve world problems” and offer health programs.
Imari Price raised his hand. He told the YMCA that it’s really all about money with this generation of young people.
“They (Generation Z) are really about making money,” he said. “They don’t want to work for anyone. They want to open their own businesses. Can you bring financial literacy courses here. Can you teach young people how to be entrepreneurs? Can you teach them about balance sheets and profit and losses? That’s what they need.”
Another woman said the teens at the rec center may want to do apprenticeships but lack opportunities. She asked if the Y could partner with local businesses to offer job shadowing.
The group acknowledged not all graduates go to college. They said there’s a need to introduce vocational, military recruitment and on-the-job training opportunities to students at the rec center.
Each YMCA member said there will be enhanced educational opportunities and promised all rec center students would excel.
Shannon Matthews said she and Jones will work with pastors, community leaders, business owners and other advocates. She looking for volunteers, new board members to serve on the Cooper Street Rec Center advisory board.
“We want to be that community hub,” said Chris Snapp, vice president of Y operations. “We want to learn and listen more. We are excited about the vision of this community. But we need volunteers. We can’t do it without volunteers.”
For more information, email CooperStreetRec@ymcaswfl.org
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